Denver, Colo., Jul 15, 2014 / 04:56 pm (CNA/EWTN News).-
A lawsuit charges that a Colorado Planned Parenthood affiliate failed to recognize and report the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl by her stepfather when its staff performed an abortion on her and put her on birth control at the stepfather’s request.

The pro-life group Operation Rescue made the legal complaint public last week.

Operation Rescue president Troy Newman praised the girl’s mother, who filed the suit, citing “her brave stand to hold Planned Parenthood accountable for their crime against her daughter.”

Newman said July 11 that the legal complaint shows that Planned Parenthood is dedicated to “selling abortion.”

The lawsuit charges that Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and four staffers showed “multiple failures” to ask how the minor became pregnant or to ask what her relationship was to her stepfather, who brought her for an abortion at a Denver abortion clinic.

The lawsuit was filed in June in Denver District Court on behalf of the girl, known as “R.Z.”, and the girl’s mother, who both live in the Denver suburb of Federal Heights.

The lawsuit says Planned Parenthood ignored “numerous indications” that the teen had been sexually abused.

According to the lawsuit, the girl had been sexually abused by her stepfather for about seven years. The stepfather verbally and physically abused the girl and her mother. He took the girl for an abortion in May 2012 after giving her a pregnancy test.

The suit alleges that Planned Parenthood staffers knew the pregnant teen girl’s age and that she had a different last name than her stepfather.

It also alleges that staffers did not contact the girl’s mother or law enforcement or child services, even though suspected sexual abuse of a child must be reported under state law.

The Planned Parenthood clinic allegedly administered “a long-term and undetectable form of birth control to the girl despite her fear of needles, all of which enabled the man to continue his years of sexual abuse of the girl without discovery or consequence.”

The suit said that the abortion clinic also failed to comply with state requirements that required it to send written notice of the abortion to the girl’s parents.

The girl told her mother about the sexual abuse in July 2012. The mother took the girl to the hospital, where she learned her daughter was on birth control. She later learned her daughter had been taken for an abortion.

The stepfather pleaded guilty to two felony counts of sexual abuse in late 2012, the Washington Times reports.

Marie Logsden, vice president of communications at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, declined to comment on the case, citing privacy laws and the organization’s “long-standing commitment to quality and confidentiality.”

She said Planned Parenthood staff comply with all state and federal laws and receive extensive and regular training, the Washington Times says.

In other states, pro-life investigative reporting groups such as Live Action have filmed undercover video at Planned Parenthood clinics showing that some staffers do not comply with various state reporting laws intended to protect minors who are seeking abortions.